TV Executive Brandon Tartikoff Dies

Brandon Tartikoff, whose high-profile 10-year run as president of NBC Entertainment shepherded some of television’s most enduring programs and established network executives as celebrities, died Wednesday after a long battle with cancer. He was 48.

At 31, Tartikoff became the youngest executive ever to run an entertainment division, and he held the position longer than anyone else at any network.

Though associated with such long-running hits as “The Cosby Show,” “Family Ties” and “L.A. Law,” which powered NBC from third to first in the ratings from 1985 until 1991, Tartikoff’s legacy may have as much to do with the strength of his personality as with the programs created under his guidance. Unlike most of his predecessors, the executive savored the spotlight and even appeared on several television shows, from “Alf” to “Saturday Night Live.” Just last year he played a smarmy network executive on an episode of CBS’ “Dave’s World.”

“He worked best in a bright light,” said former NBC Chairman Grant Tinker, “and he cast a bright light.”

NBC broadcast a tribute to Tartikoff Wednesday night after “Law & Order.”

Tartikoff was first found to have Hodgkin’s disease at the age of 23, in 1972. After successful treatment, the disease recurred in 1981, shortly after he was promoted to president of NBC Entertainment and had married his wife, Lilly, a dancer with the American Ballet Company whom he met in Los Angeles. The disease went into remission until resurfacing last Thanksgiving.

Tartikoff resumed aggressive treatment beginning in January and told friends earlier this month that he had been given a clean bill of health by his doctors. But on Monday, he reentered UCLA Medical Center, and died about noon Wednesday of complications resulting from his treatments.

Despite reports that Tartikoff was again ill, the seriousness of his condition was not widely known. Close friends and associates said that Tartikoff, who in recent years has been a producer in television and for the Internet, was working as recently as last week, calling them with ideas and program pitches.

His death shocked and saddened colleagues in the entertainment industry, who lauded his programming acumen, competitive spirit, optimism in the face of adversity, and his bold sense of humor and practical joking.

“His combination of passion and love for [television] was so infectious, I think he’s irreplaceable,” said Ted Harbert, a former president of ABC Entertainment. “He raised the bar for all the executives that competed against him.”

NBC languished in third place at the time Tartikoff was named programming chief, which gave the network the freedom--under Tinker’s guidance--to stick with critically acclaimed but low-rated shows such as “Cheers” and “Hill Street Blues” that eventually turned its fortunes.

The key, however, came in 1984, when NBC premiered “The Cosby Show,” which had been passed up by other networks. Comedy had been written off as a dead genre and, although he harbored doubts about the show, it became an instant smash and vaulted the network into first place the next season for the first time in 30 years.

Friends say that Tartikoff’s battle against Hodgkin’s disease gave him a perspective on life that was unusual for an executive in the cutthroat entertainment industry.

“There was not a cynical bone in his body; he had an unbridled enthusiasm,” said Jeffrey Sagansky, co-president of Sony Pictures Entertainment, who worked under Tartikoff at NBC. “He was rare in that he had an unflagging optimism.”

Even in the darkest days at NBC in the early 1980s, when ratings had sunk to then-record lows for any network and nine new shows had failed, Sagansky said Tartikoff refused to succumb to defeat.

“He would say, ‘They’re going to write that we are the greatest comeback in network history.’ Failure didn’t affect him like it does the rest of us.”

Tinker departed in 1986--after General Electric acquired NBC--and hits stopped coming as readily for Tartikoff, although the network continued to reign over prime time. By 1991, however, the network’s fortunes were clearly beginning to turn, as the shows that put NBC on top aged.

The same year, Tartikoff’s life changed dramatically as well, beginning with a New Year’s Day auto accident at Lake Tahoe that left him and his 8-year-old daughter, Calla, seriously injured. Tartikoff was released from the hospital a month later, but Calla sustained a serious head injury from which she has never fully recovered.

After five years of therapy for Calla at Tulane University that led the family to live in New Orleans, the Tartikoffs moved back to their home in Beverly Hills earlier this year so Calla could enter the ninth grade in Los Angeles.

Friends say Tartikoff’s career has been more fitful since the accident. It was during Tartikoff’s own hospital recovery that he was recruited as chairman of Paramount Pictures. Although the hire received praise initially, executives said his fast-paced, TV-nurtured approach to the business ill-prepared him for the politics of running a major movie studio.

The executive was responsible for several hit movies at Paramount--including “Wayne’s World” (spun off from NBC’s “Saturday Night Live”)--”The Firm” and “Indecent Proposal,” but his brief 15-month tenure was generally written off as a failed experiment.

“Why would a man four months after a near-fatal car crash jump into a high-pressure job for a boss he didn’t know in an industry he didn’t know?” asked Harry Anderson, an executive who worked closely with Tartikoff for the last six years. “He was a risk taker and sometimes he was oblivious to the risks.”

Tartikoff faced major distractions at Paramount, shuttling back and forth between New Orleans and Los Angeles for his daughter’s treatment. He clashed with then-studio boss Stanley Jaffe.

NBC, meanwhile, plummeted to third place in the ratings the year after Tartikoff left, prompting executives to marvel at his sense of timing, allowing successors to grapple with the challenge of rebuilding NBC’s programming lineup.

After producing on his own for a time from New Orleans, Tartikoff sold his production company to New World Entertainment and became its chief programmer. On the day of the announcement, New World’s stock gained $100 million in value. The company was sold to News Corp. in July 1996, and he left to resume pursuit of independent ventures.

A mystique grew around Tartikoff’s penchant for fathering high-concept (and sometimes bizarre) ideas, perhaps the most famous being his legendary scribble of “MTV cops” on a note pad, which later became the NBC hit “Miami Vice.”

“MTV was not even on my cable system at the time, but Brandon knew there was something in this cutting, this music, this fashion, this look. He had a genius for it,” said producer Stephen J. Cannell, who passed on that idea, but bit on another that Tartikoff pitched simply as “The A-Team”--a show that blended the attitudes of “Road Warrior,” “The Dirty Dozen” and Mr. T from “Rocky.”

Born in Long Island, N.Y., in 1949, Tartikoff considered himself part of the medium’s first generation of viewers and was called by former mentor Fred Silverman “the definitive student of television.”

“He studied prime time from the age of 4 and could spout off the CBS lineup from 1954,” said Anderson. “He lived and breathed television.”

Tartikoff graduated from Yale in 1970 and worked for the ABC-owned TV station in Chicago before moving to Los Angeles in 1976, joining NBC the following year. He published an autobiography in 1992, “The Last Great Ride,” focusing on his years at the network.

In addition to Calla, now 14, Tartikoff and his wife adopted a daughter, Elisabeth, age 3. Tartikoff is also survived by his father, Jordan, and sister, Lisa Rosenthal. A memorial service will be held Friday at Mt. Sinai Memorial Park and Mortuary in Los Angeles.

Contributions can be made to the Revlon/UCLA Women’s Cancer Research Program, c/o Dr. Dennis Slaman, UCLA School of Medicine, 11-934 Factor Building, 10833 Le Conte Ave., Los Angeles. 90095-1678.